Lost and Found
by day-see
Summary: A busy Parisian street. A man on a mission. A lady in hiding. A family, finally reuniting.


**Based on this tumblr prompt: #535**

" _ **I never thought I would see you again."**_

" _ **Did you ever stop to think that maybe that was the point?"**_

 **Originally posted on my tumblr; fragilefangirl . tumblr . com**

When he found her, he felt like the world stopped mid-time. He could feel his surroundings fading away, chit-chats blurring into background as his entire attention was focused on her.

She seemed paler, thinner, older–

She shouldn't look like that.

He was trapped in her brown eyes, staring right through him. Or maybe he was staring right through her and trapping her instead. For now, he couldn't care less on who was doing what. All he could see was her, there, standing right across the street in flesh and blood, alive.

Tony barely had the conscience to breathe.

"Abba."

It was Tali who broke the spell, her childish calling hauled Tony back to his surroundings. She seemed to be displeased upon her father's shift of attention, as she reached out her impatient little hands to be picked up.

Tony did the slightest movement, only lowering down to pick up his daughter, eyes still glued to her mother. and yet it seemed to shake said mother's conscience. Quickly, she lowered her head and started to walk away, trying to blend in within the crowd.

He had lost her a lot more than it was necessary, far too much to let her slide away again this time.

Tony had never moved so fast in his life. One second he was half-frozen on the spot, holding hands with Tali, and the next moment he was already halfway striding over the busy Parisian streets, Tali safe in his embrace. His eyes, full of awareness, gazed around the people around him, desperate to find her amongst the crowd. His logic assured him that she couldn't be already that far, but then again he was dealing with a stealthy ninja. He couldn't risk any chances. So he sped up his pace, clutching Tali tight to his chest as his eyes searched left and right.

He found her ducking in between the crowds, trying to go unseen. Her fast steps carrying her away from him, but his were faster. He grabbed her hand harsher than he intended to, ultimately stopping her short. She stiffened, once again frozen in spot, but she did not look back, she did not turn her head to look at him.

He could feel her whole body trembling.

For a while, they stayed that way. Him trying to hold her back, her trying to let go. Tali, who was silent throughout the short chase, finally looked up from her father's embrace. Her sweet, innocent voice echoing through their ears.

"…Ima?"

And that broke her. Her rigid composure slackened and Tony thought he heard a strangled sob. On instinct, he pulled her, effectively turning her to face him, and crush her into a hug with one hand, as the other one was still holding Tali.

"Ziva."

Her name came out breathy, and choked, and strained, because Tony himself was holding back tears. She was shaking in his arms, burying her face to his chest, one hand fisting his shirt, clutching it oh so desperately, another instinctively reaching Tali.

This all felt so surreal.

"I never thought–" he said, struggling to form words, "I never thought I would see you again."

It took her a while to look up and answer, her eyes tearful and her voice shaky as she did so. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe that was the point?"

She might try to sound vicious and angered, but her words came out vulnerable.

"Yeah, but." Tony said, loosening his deathgrip to her a little bit, afraid that she might get away if he let her go completely. But Ziva's hand stayed clutching his shirt tightly, as if she might rip it. Her clinging him physically somehow made Tony's somersaulting heart a bit calmer. "I'm the wild card, remember?"

The one that looks into reality and refuses to accept it.

"So I refuse that possibility–" he gulped a breath, feeling that it was the freshest air that filled his lungs since a long while. "–of you not wanting to be found." _Of you being dead, of you gone, leaving me._

"I hate you, Anthony DiNozzo," she said, but her hand that was previously on his chest were caressing his stubble gently, a contrary to her words. He answered with a searing kiss that seemed to last forever, pushing the world to the background. Both of them seemed reluctant to break when they felt the need to breathe a good minute later.

Tali was already impatient, exclaiming 'Ima! Ima!' and reaching her mother for an embrace long overdue. Ziva chuckled to her daughter, a tearful one, as she turned to the toddler. Picking her up from her father's embrace, she pampered her with kisses, Tony's hands still hovering over them protectively. Her eyes shone with immense gratitude as she gazed up to the love of her life. Tony smiled, the big, honest kind that he had not done in years, not since she disappeared from his life.

"Welcome home, Ziva David."

 _Fin._


End file.
